News & Discussion: Level Crossings

[Ash-SV6]

Been given a snippet out of the north's local Messenger by family describing how an overpass and two underpasses of the Gawler line will be built as part of the Playford North regeneration project. Its got the Playford council's project manager claiming that the Curtis Rd level crossing will be replaced by an overpass, while an underpass will be built alongside Munno Para station (must be a stuff up, assume they meant Anderson Drive next to Smithfield station), and an underpass built for a new road running through Army training depot half way between Smithfield and Broadmeadows station.

Sounds like utter pie in the sky to me, I doubt the State Government would spend hundreds of millions on those three roads when there are far more worthy level crossings such as Torrens Rd or Diagonal Rd. :wank:

[Cruise]

i'll believe it when i see it

[ReallyBad]

All level crossings should be grade seperated in Adelaide - Sydney put that in place a long time ago - even the small insignificant crossings were upgraded.

[jimmy_2486]

Yes but I think Adelaide has their priorities mixed up.... who cares about Smithfield, when there are more important matters like cross roads, diagonal road, south road and the list goes on.

I'm sure the traffic in Smithfield is manageable compared to the likes of some other inner metro areas.

Are the poor munno para shoppers kicking up a stink cos there is a 2-3 car bank up at the train line??

Maybe they should come for a drive to Marion shopping center, or drive down cross rd at 5pm, and they might think twice.

[Cruise]

Yes but I think Adelaide has their priorities mixed up.... who cares about Smithfield, when there are more important matters like cross roads, diagonal road, south road and the list goes on.

I'm sure the traffic in Smithfield is manageable compared to the likes of some other inner metro areas.

Are the poor munno para shoppers kicking up a stink cos there is a 2-3 car bank up at the train line??

Maybe they should come for a drive to Marion shopping center, or drive down cross rd at 5pm, and they might think twice.

yeah your right, come to think we dont need the NEXY, PREXY, sturt highway upgrade, Playford north upgrade, Mawson lakes interchange and Elder smith road construction all this money should have spent on some sort of super highway from marion to the city (with an exit ramp directly to your house of course)

[jimmy_2486]

yeah your right, come to think we dont need the NEXY, PREXY, sturt highway upgrade, Playford north upgrade, Mawson lakes interchange and Elder smith road construction all this money should have spent on some sort of super highway from marion to the city (with an exit ramp directly to your house of course)

Ahhh, NEXY, PREXY and all those other things are useful and will benefit the northern suburbs as a whole.

Putting an underpass where it isn't needed is a waste of money and I think sometimes how dumb the playford council is for thinking this is useful..... I think a freeway from my house to the city (like u said) would probably benefit more people than this stupid idea.

I mean why have it?? there is no frggin traffic there?? Cross road (unley park), south road (croyden), park tce (bowden) get hammered with 40-65 thousand cars a day and having a train crossing there is ridiculous!! These places should be examined for underpasses.... Not smithfield.

[Ash-SV6]

Wasn't Torrens Rd once going to recieve an overpass, but the money allocated to another road project?

[Cruise]

yeah your right, come to think we dont need the NEXY, PREXY, sturt highway upgrade, Playford north upgrade, Mawson lakes interchange and Elder smith road construction all this money should have spent on some sort of super highway from marion to the city (with an exit ramp directly to your house of course)

Ahhh, NEXY, PREXY and all those other things are useful and will benefit the northern suburbs as a whole.

Putting an underpass where it isn't needed is a waste of money and I think sometimes how dumb the playford council is for thinking this is useful..... I think a freeway from my house to the city (like u said) would probably benefit more people than this stupid idea.

I mean why have it?? there is no frggin traffic there?? Cross road (unley park), south road (croyden), park tce (bowden) get hammered with 40-65 thousand cars a day and having a train crossing there is ridiculous!! These places should be examined for underpasses.... Not smithfield.

that would make the overpass over the train line at mawson lakes stupid to, yes?

[jimmy_2486]

Yeah well that money could had gone to actually alleviating traffic problems in the city, rather than just adding more convenience to the already VERY convenient outer suburbs.

We cannot have too many rail services running as they will block roads off. So yes, eventually all rail lines should be grade separated from roads. However, why they think mawson lakes and smithfield have higher priority over south road, cross road, park tce, torrens road and many more, remains a mystery to me???

[AG]

Yeah well that money could had gone to actually alleviating traffic problems in the city, rather than just adding more convenience to the already VERY convenient outer suburbs.

We cannot have too many rail services running as they will block roads off. So yes, eventually all rail lines should be grade separated from roads. However, why they think mawson lakes and smithfield have higher priority over south road, cross road, park tce, torrens road and many more, remains a mystery to me???

If the rail lines are going to be grade separated over time, then any new roads constructed over the rail lines may as well be grade separated now rather than later otherwise there would be wasted costs into reconstructing crossings that could have been done properly the first time. It made sense for Elder Smith Drive rail bridge to be constructed now rather than later, plus the bridge doubles up as access to platform 1 at Mawson Lakes.

[jimmy_2486]

There you go cruise.....there is your question answered....

[Wilfy 2007]

Yes but I think Adelaide has their priorities mixed up.... who cares about Smithfield, when there are more important matters like cross roads, diagonal road, south road and the list goes on.

I'm sure the traffic in Smithfield is manageable compared to the likes of some other inner metro areas.

Are the poor munno para shoppers kicking up a stink cos there is a 2-3 car bank up at the train line??

Maybe they should come for a drive to Marion shopping center, or drive down cross rd at 5pm, and they might think twice.

yeah your right, come to think we dont need the NEXY, PREXY, sturt highway upgrade, Playford north upgrade, Mawson lakes interchange and Elder smith road construction all this money should have spent on some sort of super highway from marion to the city (with an exit ramp directly to your house of course)

Cruise, Jimmy_2486,
Did you ever think that doing the Construction work in the north of the city would be easier due to much smaller traffic loads.
Did you also consider that past SA governments have put off upgrading South Road, Cross Road, Diagonal Road and Marion Road because of the huge cost in land aquisition. Basically there has been very little attempt made to improve either road or rail in the inner suburbs of Adelaide and this is because there is nobody in the SA Government who has a Vision of any kind for changing Adelaide for the better. They cant even invest in a new batch of Railcars cause it costs too much money.

If they want the city of Adelaide to expand then they will have to start investing money, especially in the Rail sector.

[jimmy_2486]

Well I think that ALL rail crossings should be replaced with bridges/underpasses. However they should work on the inner metro sections (Where its the busiest, and will be the most effective) before going into the outer suburbs.

Seems like they have their priorities mixed up....

[[Shuz]]

As any of the rail fanbois and hopefully some of the more saner, logical people would know, that if you want a successful, reliable and frequent rail system to work; it helps that the network has no level crossings at all.

Now I know that no crossings at present are being removed; but there is the talk & proposals of eliminating the Bowden/Park Tce and Oaklands crossings. Which is all and well, but I personally believe this isn't enough. Moderators, I sincerely hope that you'll merge these existing threads into this one.

Just to throw in a few fancy facts for you lot. There are currently 72 level crossings across the entire Adelaide Metro rail network, and 49 "intersections" already grade separated (inc. Seaford extension). All up, that's 121 'intersections' of road and rail crossing the other. As a percentage, this breaks down to 40.5% of the network is grade-separated, and 59.5% isn't.

I've got the figures by line individually - but I'll post them later. I'm off drinking now!

Nevertheless; the whole point, I sincerely hope that the State Govt. implements a strategy soon enough to tackle this issue, and I'd love to see if they'd work towards bringing that figure to 50-50 by 2020 - which means eliminating 12 crossings by then.

For starting discussion; what would be the first 12 priority intersections you think they should get rid of?

[AG]

Not in any particular order, but these are the ones that come to mind:

South:
- Leader Street, Goodwood
- Victoria Street, Goodwood
- Cross Road, Unley Park
- Diagonal Road, Oaklands Park
- Brighton Road, Hove
- Cross Road at Emerson Station (probably one of the more tricky ones to do with South Road already running over the top)

North:
- Park Terrace, Bowden
- South Road, Croydon
- Torrens Road, Ovingham
- Woodville Road, Woodville
- Cormack Road, Dry Creek
- Park Terrace, Salisbury

Most of the ones I've listed have been picked as they are either very close to busy existing intersections and prone to queuing, and/or they are on lines where trains pass through frequently and are likely to pass through more frequently in future.

Is there any particular reason why you've chosen 50% as a minimum threshold?